Race 3 - October 26: US GP of Cyclocross #2 - Elite Women

Gould, Nash double in 'Luna'ville

'Second verse, same as the first' is an appropriate way to describe the second
day of the USGP series opener in Louisville. The Luna duo of Georgia Gould and
Katerina Nash once again had their way with the women's field, with only Rachel
Lloyd (California Giant Berry/Specialized) once again able to even put up a
fight. But unlike yesterday, where a late-race crash put Georgia Gould out of
sprinting her teammate for the podium, the two came hard to the line, with Gould
unleashing her powerful sprint for the win.

"Yesterday it felt like a short race and it took us a while to move up," Gould
said. "So today we tried to get up and make the pace hard earlier, so that we
would have less people to contend with at the end. It worked well because it
was just me and Katerina for the last two and a half laps."

As for the sprint tactics, Gould said it was rather straightforward battling
her teammate. "I didn't want to let Katerina go around; I felt it would be better
to go ahead, be first on the pavement and then start my sprint,” she said. “We
are teammates, but we don't cut each other any slack – we race hard."

"I gave it all I had but I didn't stay in Georgia's draft, I don't know why!"
Nash laughed. "I guess I was trying to make it fair and take my own line, but
she is just stronger."

Nash almost repeated Gould's mistake yesterday, overcooking a turn and nearly
crashing into the fence when it was just the two of them off the front. "I was
thinking it was another corner going into the flat, so I was carrying too much
speed,” she said. “You get in this brain mode, and it doesn't always work half-way
through the race."

Lloyd again rode impressive, pushing the two Luna riders and the overall pace.
"Rachel put in some good attacks and we kept the pace high, so it came down
to us three again," said Nash. "I was able to go a little harder in a couple
of corners and got rid of Rachel."

"The early part was a bit easier than yesterday so I thought about drilling
it through the turns, but I probably used up a little too much energy," said
Lloyd. "I thought it was a little less attacking because Georgia was just drilling
it. She didn't really attack me, she just rode me off her wheel. Katerina didn't
have to play any games either, she just sat on me, waited and then just went
around me."

Though losing the sprint, the one-two placings on the weekend gave Nash the
overall series lead – something she plans on defending. "I'm doing all
the races so I would love to keep it to the end," she said.

Winning the most aggressive rider of the day was newcomer to 'cross Laura Van
Gilder (C3 Sollay.com) who won the field sprint.